Carrollton, Higginsville take MRVC East track crowns

D’Andre Williams won three individual medals for the Spartans and Savanna Nobile grabbed a pair of third-place finishes for the Lady Spartans at the MRVC East track meet held Tuesday at the Robert Middleton track at Spartan Stadium.
The Carrollton Trojans won the boys’ team title, while Higginsville easily captured the girls’ championship in the team competition. The Trojans ended the day with 119.5 points, with Higginsville taking second with 109, and Holden placed third with 103.5.
Knob Noster finished fourth with 94 points, followed by Knob Noster with 94, Richmond with 70, and Lexington with 58.
The Lady Huskers earned 173 points, with Knob Noster a distant second with 115. Holden finished third with 84, followed by Richmond with 67, Lexington with 63 and Carrollton with 49.
Williams took first place for the Spartans in the triple jump with a leap of 41 feet, 6 inches, while Lexington’s Andrew Stevenson placed second with 40-1. Williams was the runner-up in the long jump with a distance of 18-6, with Stevenson grabbing first with 18-9 3/4. The Richmond senior ran the third-place time of 12.15 seconds in the 100-meter dash.
Cody Gorham captured the other first-place medal for the Spartans when the freshman crossed the finish line 7 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Higginsville senior Matt Leonard, in the 1,600-meter run. Gorham’s winning time was a season-best 4:42.72. He also placed sixth in the 800 meters with a time of 26.31. Sophomore Stephen Smith finished second in the 3,200 meters with a time of 11:08. 35, with Leonard turning in the winning time of 10:57.57.
Luke Bailey earned a pair of fourth-place medals for Richmond. The Spartan freshman ran the 3,200 in 11:25.04, and was timed in the 300-meter hurdles in 46.67. Another Richmond freshman earned points with his sixth-place finish in the 200 meters as Luke Casebolt turned in a time of 26.31. Jake Halterman finished fifth in the shot put with a distance of 41-4.
The 4 x 100 relay team of Preston Maples, Robert Bradley, Casebolt and Williams, finished second with a time of 47.88. Two other relay teams placed fifth – the 4 x 200 grouping of Kenny Fares, Casebolt, Maples and Bradley ran a time of 1:46.52 and the 4 x 800 squad of Bailey, Smith, Dylan White and Tyler Minnick covered the distance with a time of 9:29.65. The 4 x 400 team turned in a sixth-place time of 4:15.72.
Nobile earned a third-place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:39.06 for the Lady Spartans, to go along with her third-place height of 7 feet in the pole vault. The freshman also turned in a time of 6:15 to place fourth in the 1,600 meters.
Senior Hannah Alpers ran her personal best of 5:59.94 in the 1,600 meters to grab a second-place medal for Richmond. Another senior, Deanna Barger, also had her season-best time in the 3,200 meters with 13:30, which put her in third. Amanda Powell finished fourth in the 300-meter hurdles with her time of 54.12.
Lady Spartan freshman Jordan Kennedy picked up a pair of sixth-place finishes. She ran the 300-meter hurdles in 59.37, and the 100-meter hurdles in 21.0. Alyssa Bradley was sixth in the long jump with a leap of 13-3 1/2, with Hannah Todd taking sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 29-1. Adrian Tacket also finished sixth for Richmond with a distance of 96-61/2 in the discus.
The Lady Spartan relay teams had a runner-up and a pair of third-place finishes. The 4 x 800 team turned in a second-place time of 10:40, with the 4 x 100 taking third with a time of 54.97, and the 4 x 200 also taking third with 1:57.85. The 4 x 400 team was fourth with a time of 4:29.09.
PHOTO: D’Andre Williams leaps to first place in the triple jump for the Richmond Spartans. (Photo by Russ Green/The Daily News.)